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The Perfect Fit

By Lynn McCain | April 15

Saguna Narayan 500.JPGMolecular pathologists require a unique skillset that many may not even consider when thinking about a career in medicine. This specialty combines aspects of engineering, medicine, and informatics into a challenging and fulfilling career. Dr. Suguna Narayan, Assistant Professor, is a perfect example of someone who combined these interests into a fascinating career.

Narayan completed her undergraduate studies in chemical engineering at the University of Colorado before going to Northwestern University in Chicago to pursue an MD and PhD. “I did my PhD in biomedical engineering, focusing on using nanotechnology in diagnostics and therapeutic applications in the lab of Chad Mirkin, PhD,” she explained.

After she graduated, Narayan returned to Colorado for her anatomic and clinical pathology residency. “When I was in medical school, I did a pathology rotation, which I found very interesting. The process of diagnosis is what attracted me to medicine in the first place.” While in her residency, she went through various rotations, one of which was in molecular pathology. “The molecular pathologists had a lot of interesting work going on, and they were smart, inspiring people who made the work seem fun. So, I decided to pursue a molecular pathology fellowship – and that is how I came here.”

Narayan chose Michigan because she had the opportunity to do a combined molecular pathology and pathology informatics 2-year fellowship. “I wanted to understand the informatics infrastructure; the bioinformatics pipelines we use to process next-generation sequencing data. The pathology informatics program here is excellent, and Ul [Balis] is very well known and wonderful to work with.” Because the pathology informatics fellowship is not an ACGME-accredited fellowship program, it has the flexibility to be structured similarly to a postdoctoral fellowship. “In addition to the core competencies of informatics, the fellow gets to explore an area that they are interested in. The bulk of my informatics-only year was spent on a project related to molecular pathology.”  She learned more about informatics ecosystems, how to design software systems for molecular pathology, variant visualization, and reporting, along with various tools for software development.

Drs. Saguna Narayan and Dan Hovelson discuss their work within the DGGWhen Narayan completed her fellowship, she was quickly recruited to join the Division of Diagnostic Genetics and Genomics faculty. In the DGG, she signs out solid tumor molecular pathology cases for about 50% of her time. During the rest of her time, she works on software development and helps build the informatics infrastructure for this new unit. “We are trying to build a cohesive data ecosystem through DGG that can house data from multiple types of assays. We are converting our legacy software solutions to a more modern architecture that makes it easy to store, retrieve, and analyze data. We are also designing and building custom software applications, designing user interfaces that integrate well with lab workflows.” One of the keys to this team's success is the diversity in skillsets, backgrounds, and perspectives. “It is so important to have different perspectives in the room when doing this kind of development. It is nice to have informatics colleagues who are also well-versed in molecular pathology and the genomics world to design something that is truly state-of-the-art.”

Narayan’s goal over the next few years is to help develop a unified data ecosystem that accommodates the wide variety of assays run in the DGG. “Developing a single ecosystem is an enormous challenge, and being able to lay the groundwork for further development would be great.”

When she is not at work, Narayan enjoys traveling wherever there is sunshine, and to escape the cloudy Michigan days. She has made numerous trips to India, where her family originated, and loves Colorado’s bright sunlit peaks.

 

 
dgg pathology informatics faculty perspective
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